Harry, in turn, while in exile is attempting to carry out the charge put on him by Wizard Albus Dumbledore in Book Six, before his death, to lay the foundation for Voldemort's destruction by finding and destroying his horcruxs. These seven horcruxs are objects in which Voldemort has stashed a bit of his soul, each of which could, in an emergency, regenerate the original Voldemort.

A second subplot is revealed, the Deathly Hallows, to complicate things. The Deathly Hallows is a legend that suggests that there exist three magical objects, an invisibility cloak, a rock of resurrection, and an invincible wand, that if gathered together by one wizard would give that wizard immunity from death.

For most of the book, Harry and his friends find and destroy one horcrux after another, while Voldemort, ignorant of Harry's success, focuses his labors on finding the three Hallows objects, ultimately securing only the wand.

The fifth horcrux is hidden in Hogwarts, where Harry knows Voldemort's troops await. He, Ron and Hermione return there anyway, and find that most of their fellow students, along with the staff and other assorted wizards, are waiting for him there to lead a revolt.

In the ensuing battle, the fifth and sixth horcrux are destroyed. Snape also dies, but not before giving Harry a snippet of memory. Harry learns from this that Snape was, in fact, a secret agent acting on Dumbledore's orders opposing Voldemort. Harry also learns that the final horcrux, the last stored bit of Voldemort, is within Harry, planted by accident when the dark lord attempted to kill Harry as an infant.

Armed with this knowledge, Harry enters into battle with Voldemort, during which Voldemort unknowingly slays that part of himself within Harry.

With no horcrux left from which to regenerate, Voldemort fights Harry in the climactic scene, and is slain by Harry's cleverness and his own hubris. Sadly, in the battles Fred Weasley, Tonks and Remus Lupin also die.

The story ends with a vignette 19 years later, where we learn that Harry and Ginny Weasley have married, and their children attend Hogwarts. Ron and Hermione are also happily wed, and they too have offspring in the school. Hagrid remains a teacher there, as is Nevil Longbottom.

And they all live happily ever after.



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